Yearly Archives: 2020

Term of Art: Dyslexia

“Dyslexia: An impairment in the ability to read, not resulting from low intelligence. It was first described in 1877 by the German physician Adolf Kussmaul (1822-1902), who coined the term word blindness to refer to it. See also acquired dyslexia, alexia, attentional dyslexia, catalexia, central dyslexias, cognitive neuropsychology, deep dyslexia, developmental dyslexia, neglect dyslexia, phonological dyslexia, spelling dyslexia, surface dyslexia, visual word-form dyslexia. Also called alexia, hypolexia, and word blindness. See also reading disorder, strephosymbolia. Compare hyperlexia. Dyslexic adj.”

Excerpted from: Colman, Andrew M., ed. Oxford Dictionary of Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Common Errors in English Usage: Suspect (n), Suspicious (adj)

Last but not least on this stunningly beautiful summer afternoon, here is an English usage worksheet on the noun suspect and the adjective suspicious and differentiating their use in declarative sentences.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Write It Right: Approach

“Approach. ‘The juror was approached’; that is, overtures were made to him with a view to bribing him. As there is not other single word for it, approach is made to serve, figuratively; and being graphic, it is not altogether objectionable.”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.

Word Root Exercise: Carn, Carni

Here is a worksheet on the Latin word roots carn and carni. They mean flesh and meat, which you already knew if you’ve ever eaten chili con carne, carnitas tacos, taught or were taught a biology lesson about carnivores, explained to students that reincarnation is a belief common to both Hinduism and Buddhism, or thought about the consequences of war as carnage.

Just sayin’.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Melba Patillo Beals on the Crucible of Her Youth

“But, because we dared to challenge the Southern tradition of segregation, this school became, instead, a furnace that consumed our youth and forged us into reluctant warriors.”

Melba Patillo Beals, on the Desegregation of Little Rock Schools, Warriors Don’t Cry(1994)

Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003

Vince Lombardi

Here is some relatively high-interest material, to wit a reading on Vince Lombardi, the legendary football coach, and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Term of Art: Intransitive Verb

“Intransitive Verb: A verb that does not take a direct object. His nerve failed.”

Excerpted from: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.

Inveigh (vi)

It was Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day yesterday, and while it’s a little off the beaten track of everyday conversation, it does show up in academic prose frequently enough to at least write this context clues worksheet on the verb inveigh. Interestingly, it is only used transitively, and doesn’t really appear without the preposition before the noun or noun phrase being inveighed against, e.g. “Mr. Feltskog inveighed against putting mayonnaise on corned beef.”

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Lusterware

“Lusterware: A Middle Eastern luxury item brought to Spain in the late 10th century. Muslim artisans produced iridescent ceramic glazes that appeared as metallic silver, copper, or gold. In the 15th century lusterware tiles and dinnerware were commissioned throughout Europe by princes, cardinals, and popes. Decorative elements included their heraldic emblems along with Moorish signs and symbols.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

Document-Based Questioning Unit: Coda

All I know about this document that is ostensibly a DBQ exercise on ancient Egypt on ancient Egypt is that is was something one of my co-teachers used when I worked with him several years ago. I also know that it and the teacher’s copy of the same document were by themselves, without lesson plan or short exercises, in the folder that held the ten-lesson unit posted immediately below. And looking at them now, I think I know I never developed a lesson around this because I didn’t think there was enough primary material in it.

Rather than throw them away, though, I post them here. As with about 98 percent of the documents on Mark’s Text Terminal, these are in Microsoft Word format, so you can manipulate them to suit your circumstances.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.